


Slammed Doors

by CarcinoKattastic



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crying, Other, Pakcing up family home, Parent Death, Sad, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 17:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10598619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarcinoKattastic/pseuds/CarcinoKattastic
Summary: Pidge and Matt never thought this day would come, never thought they would be standing outside their family home with boxes ready to pack up anything of value, but here they were. After both their parents died in an unfortunate car accident, the Holt siblings must push past the pain to collect their parents things from the house they made a home and to close the front door of the house forever.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to Dragonetgirl for editing this, I'm very sorry I made you cry with this fic.
> 
> I really wanted to practice working with sadder emotions such as loss and sadly the victims of this practice were Pidge and Matt.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this and fee free to leave comments with what you think.

The door felt unnaturally heavy as Matt pushed it open. This was a door he had opened thousands of times, slammed it by accident on most days, and closed gently on late nights out. Pidge had done the same, though she had tended to slam it a little too much for their mother’s liking, even when it was the middle of the night. Yes, this old door with its chipped white paint and the golden number 5 on the wood, had over twenty-six years of slamming stressed into it over the course of Matt and Pidge’s lifetime. This was the door of their childhood home.

Matt gently placed his set of keys on the wood dresser that sat in the hall by the door, barely noticing Pidge doing the same as she followed close behind him, silent and broken. The two almost expected to hear the perky voice of their mother from the kitchen, greeting them and asking how their day had been, but there was nothing. Just a silent and empty house.

It was only just the other day that the two had heard their parents speak to them, over the phone with the usual chatter about their jobs and relationships, but they still remember the ‘I love you’ that came at the end of the rushed phone call. 

Sadly, just after that rushed call, as Samual and Helen Holt rushed off to work slightly later than normal, they got caught in a horrific five car pileup after a drunk driver swerved into them and caused the major accident. Doctors said that Sam had died on impact while Helen lived to see an operating theatre and nothing more. Such a quick and meaningless death for two of the kindest and smartest people anyone had ever known.

Pidge entered the kitchen to see dirty plates still in the sink from that day. Their late rush to work had caused her parents to abandon dishes, to be done after they returned from work. Matt watched as Pidge instantly began to clean the dirty dishes up without a word. With a sigh he headed to his father’s office to collect a half empty coffee cup from the desk, and then upstairs to his parent’s room to collect any dirty water glasses. The two stayed quiet as Matt placed the dirty dishes beside the sink, Pidge just focusing on scrubbing the dried jam off the side of a plate, while Matt figured out what else needed to be done.

The two worked silently for an hour, Matt had put on a load of clothes that had been sat soaking in the washing machine these past few days and folded anything that was in the drier, while Pidge finished the dishes and then finished off any ironing that needed doing. Once the simple half finished chores were done they both stood at the bottom of the stairs, feeling the weight of what they were about to do settle in on their shoulders. Stacks of empty boxes stood behind them, ready to be filled with belongings.

As Pidge went to take a step upstairs her phone rang with an unwanted cheery tune, breaking the thick silence that sat between the two siblings. Pidge gave Matt and apologetic look and went into the kitchen to see who was calling and answer.

“Hey Pidge, are you guys at the house?” Shiro’s soothing voice came through the speaker as Pidge leaned against the counter.

“Yeah we got here maybe an hour ago…” replied Pidge, her voice sounding rough from the lack of use over the last day or so. It had hardly been used since everything had been cleared with the funeral and the will.

“Do… do you two want some help? I know it's not really my place but, Sam was like a father to me and I don't want you and Matt suffering alone…” He said, trying his best to sound supportive, to hide the pain in his voice.

“No, no. It's nice of you to offer but this is something we have to do alone…” Pidge cleared her throat after speaking, doing her best to copy Shiro and hide the pained lump that was forming in her throat.

“Okay, call me if you need me… you’re parents were good people Pidge, they’ll be missed…”

“Thank you…”

Pidge hit the large red button on her phone, before stuffing it back in her pocket and returning to Matt at the bottom of the stairs. Matt gave her a small nod before heading up the stairs with two boxs, Pidge grabbed one of her own and followed. They both headed into their parents old room and laid the boxes down at the foot of the bed. Pidge pulled out a marker and wrote ‘Charity’ on one box, ‘Sell’ on another and ‘Keep’ on the last while Matt pulled a crumpled black bag from his back pocket and put it by the door.

With the silence settling between them they got to work on sorting through their parents things. Pidge worked her way through the closet on the far wall, checking every shoe box that may contain something in either her or Matt’s sizes, before putting them in their rightful marked boxes, while Matt worked his way through the dresser, emptying out his mother’s makeup drawer into the black bag after checking it was ok to do so with Pidge. They split the jewlary between keep and sell depending on Pidge’s nods and throwing away almost every strange tie his father owned, keeping only one, a black tie covered in little stars which Sam wore for special occasions.

It didn't take long for the two of them to strip the room back to just larger furniture and sheetless bedding that was to be collected at a later date. The moment they got more boxes from downstairs they split up, each tackling their own room without the other. Pidge glanced around at her old room, still perfectly preserved from when she moved out two years ago, the only change from then was some of her junk had been moved just slightly out of place, probably from when her mother had come in to clean any dust starting to settle.

She took a deep breath and got to work, bringing down every cryptid, mermaid and space poster she had on her walls and carefully rolling them up. She then moved to her desk and began to scavenge through the robot parts to find anything useful before shoving it all in the black bag she brought with her. Everything came to a halt as she spotted a box under her bed. Gently she pulled it out and cleared the dust off the white label which read ‘ROVER PROJECT PROTOTYPE 1’ in big green sharpy.

Pidge sat back with a wistful smile. Boy did this bring back memories. The Rover Project was something Pidge and her father had worked on when she was eleven, taking drone technology to the next level to create a hovering camera which could respond and follow its owner around like a dog in order to protect. This technology was then taken to the next level by Pidge herself, causing it to be combined with other technological advances before being sent into space on the Voltron rocket to be used as a testing tool for far off planets. Without much more thought Pidge opened the box and pulled out the clunky drone creature she had made and began to fiddle with its controls. Luckily it still had power in its battery cells and the videos stored on it could be watched on the small screen implanted on its back. That flickered to life as pidge pressed a switch.

“Look Pigeon it's flying,” Sam said, his voice slightly distorted from the Rover’s terrible microphone.

“It is!” A much younger Pidge gasped, “we did it! Mummy mummy! Come see!”

The tiny Pidge ran off, leaving her father smiling proudly into the creations lense.

Pidge paused the video just as her mother entered the room, feeling warm tears streak down her freckled cheeks, as she saw her mother's beaming face on the screen. She hadn't had the chance to cry yet, with rushing to the hospital from work and then being told the news then having to break the news to Matt and having to organise everything within a short space of time, she had felt nothing but numbness throughout her whole body, but now, this video of her proud father, her cheerful mother and her, young and carefree, had opened the flood gates and she began to sob.

It wasn't long until her sobs turned into full blown bawling her eyes out as she sat back and let the wails of pain and sadness escape her small frame into the open air for the world to hear. Matt came to her side as soon as he heard her anguished wails start and upon seeing his little sister in such a state, he dropped down to his knees and pulled her into the tightest hug he possibly could, tears starting to stream down his own face. Before long the two just sat there, in each other's embrace, letting every last drop of sadness leave their body and enter the universe, leaving the clunky Rover drone abandoned on the floor, with the still of Pidge and her parents smiling happily at the screen.

\--- 

It took a few hours for them to pack up their bedrooms, every small item causing them to burst into pained tears and have the other rush to soothe them, but once it was done Pidge looked towards her father's office. This was going to be the hardest one to pack up. The small room was packed with books that Sam had used as references, or books he'd written himself, awards he had won for his research and framed newspaper clippings to match. The siblings also knew that this room held their most beloved family albums, each photo filled with happy memories which would bring an empty sadness to their day once more.

Matt was the first one to take the leap and open the door. Pidge watched as he rubbed his red and puffy eyes and push the door open, almost expecting him to start crying again there and then, but Matt just gave a sniffle and walked over to the desk. It was a complete mess, Sam had never been the most organised, with papers covering every inch of his desk. There was one thing that wasn't covered in papers though, a small potted pea plant sat beside a picture of Matt and Pidge that had been taken not long before Matt entered the Garrison Space Programme.

“Of course he’d have a pea plant,” Matt and Pidge both said in unison.

They looked over at one another and burst into deep hearted laughter. Pidge felt that she wanted to cry in this moment but she just couldn't, her father's pea plant sitting on the desk only slightly wilted and in need of a little water, was the funniest thing in the world to her at that precise moment. She picked it up, still shaking with laughter, and headed to the kitchen to pour some water into the pot and place it in the shining sun. 

When Pidge returned Matt had a very concerned look on his face, as he looked in a small cupboard that sat off to the side of the room. Pidge remembered this cupboard as being one they were never to open, even as adults, in case any of the information inside was lost or stolen, but Matt pulled out four shoe box sized boxes covered with coloured wrapping paper.

“It’s our birthday and Christmas presents for this year…” Matt said in a somber voice as he put the boxes on the desk.

“Wow they are early buyers huh?” Pidge frowned, walking over and inspecting at the boxes.

“Should we… open them?” wondered Matt, tracing his finger along the brightly patterned paper.

“I don't know… maybe we shouldn't since it's not our birthdays or Christmas yet…”

“Yeah… but if we open them later we might just bring up all this pain,” Matt placed a hand on his chest before gripping at his shirt, unsure of what they should do.

“Maybe we should take a break, I’ll see what’s in the fridge and maybe make sandwiches for lunch or something,” Pidge turned as she spoke and headed out of the room and into the kitchen to find something for them to eat, leaving Matt to stand there staring at the boxes.

His train of thought was stopped by his phone buzzing away in his pocket.

“Hello?” He said as he put the phone to his ear, his voice dry and scratchy from all the crying.

“Matthew, hello. Are you and Pidge at the house?” Allura’s sweet voice said, it was obvious she was doing her best to remain as chipper as possible for him.

“Yeah we are, we’ve cleared most of upstairs other than some bed sheets,” he said taking his glasses off to rub his sore eyes.

“Oh well I was wondering if you two needed some lunch? I can bring something over and maybe help you guys pack stuff up?”

“Thank you for the offer Allura but no thank you, Pidge is finding something to eat with what's already here, and packing up is something we need to do alone,” He said with a small sigh, “but thank you really.”

“Well I’m here if you need me.” came her gentle reply.

“I'll keep that in mind.”

“I may not have known your parents for very long but… they were nice people and when I lost my father it helped to think of all the good times we had together and not focus on the bad,” her voice wavered slightly as the pain from her own parental loss came back to her.

“Thank you Allura.”

Matt hung up and shoved his phone into his pocket with a deep sigh, looking at the boxes once again. He quickly picked them up and put them by the front door with the keep boxes, not wanting to forget about them and leave them behind.

“Peanut butter sandwich?” Pidge said, standing in the doorway between the hall and the kitchen.

“You read my mind,” Matt gave her a weak smile before joining her in the kitchen.

They bit down into their sandwiches at the same time, allowing the uncomfortable silence to settle around them. Matt gave a small sigh before getting up to get some bottled water for the both of them, noting how much food was still in the fridge to either be thrown out or moved.

“Aw man, Mum's leftover lasagne is in here… dibs,” Matt said as he pulled the plastic box out of the fridge to inspect it was still okay.

“Dude, you can't call dibs on mum’s lasagne,” Pidge frowned, “I’m the youngest I should have it.”

“By that logic I’m the oldest so I make the rules and I say we can call dibs on leftovers and I call dibs on this leftover.”

Pidge’s frown increased as she flipped her brother off, causing him to laugh and sit back down to finish his sandwich.

“Fine if we’re here later into the night than planned I’ll share some with you,” he offered, giving her a small smile.

“Fine,” she smiled back before focusing on her food again, letting the silence settle once more.

“Um, did you call the estate people?” Asked Pidge once the silence became too much to bare.

“I did yeah, they’re coming the day after tomorrow for pictures so furniture guys are coming tomorrow to pick up anything bigger we want to keep and move it to storage,” Matt responded before giving a small sigh, “though there isn't much furniture wise I want to keep other than Dad’s desk.”

“I want Mum’s vanity and the piano, that's all… we can cancel the furniture guys unless they can bring everything else to the skip, get Lance’s dad’s van to transport the desk, the piano and the vanity and save the money.”

“You want the vanity?” He raised a brow at that, he never really saw his younger sister as someone who wanted to gaze in the mirror constantly.

“Yeah, it's where Mum and I used to sit and she’d do my hair before school,” Pidge shrugged, looking down at her hands.

“I’ll call them and see if you can call Lance and ask for the van.”

“On it.”

They both got up and headed to different rooms to make their respective calls.

Pidge didn't have to wait long for Lance to answer, his happy voice sang through the phone before the first ring even finished.

“Hey Pidge, how you holding up buddy?” He asked, a small amount of concern hidden beneath his happy tone.

“Getting there, look I need to ask a favour. We only want to keep three items of furniture; a desk, a vanity and a piano, but I don't see the point in us hiring a giant truck to move them so I was wondering if you could ask your dad for a van or something we could borrow, so we can move the stuff into storage or home or wherever,” said Pidge in response, leaning against the wall slightly.

“Of course! I’ll see if he can let us have two just in case we can't get the piano in the same van as the desk and vanity.”

“Thank you Lance, I owe you,” she rubbed the bridge of her nose as she spoke, feeling tired from all her crying earlier.

“Hey don't mention it, if you need anything else me and Hunk are here if you need us,” Lance said, still keeping up his happy facade that covered the concern lingering just beneath the surface.

“Yeah I know, thank you guys.”

She hung up and slipped the phone into her pocket,. She went to the piano that sat in the front room and lightly played with a few keys. Matt leaned against the doorframe and watched as Pidge began to play one of the first songs her father taught her, ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,’ the only song he knew on piano.

“Do you… want to get as much of downstairs done as we can, and then look through some old albums I found in dad’s office?” He said, stepping over once she finished her song.

\--

They spent the next hour packing up the office, placing the albums they found on the desk for later. It took another hour to get the kitchen done but the front room wasn't so hard, only a few pictures of the family on the wall and awards that their old family dog, Gunther, had won before his passing a few years ago.

“Oh quiznak, Gunther,” Pidge said taking one of the agility awards off the wall, “he’s buried in the garden…”

Matt’s eyes went wide, “we have to dig him up and find a new place to put him…”

The younger of the two sighed as she put the award in a box, “I wonder if it's too late to have him cremated… get him split between Mum and Dad at the funeral.”

“That dog was their champion it makes sense, I’ll make some calls.”

“No I’ll do it, you've got the other car and the house to worry about I’ll take care of Gunther.”

“Alright, but for now it’s getting late. We’ve only got the garage and the hall to do tomorrow so why don't we sit with the album and some lasagna and just remember the nice stuff?” Matt suggested, putting another dog award in the box.

“I'll heat up the food.”

\---

“Oh my god, this is that one summer Dad insisted we went to the beach,” Matt laughed, pointing to a picture of the five of them at the beach, Gunther practically pushing a younger Pidge over with a wag of his tail.

“And he got the crab stuck in his shorts,” laughed Pidge as well, “still couldn't eat crab years later because he was so frightened!”

“Haha yeah, this must have been… Jeez sixteen years ago, you were ten right?”

“Yeah… it feels like it was yesterday…” she took in a deep breath before wiping a tear from her eye, “I can't believe they are gone.”

“It doesn't seem real. They were there one day and now we’re packing up their stuff, putting it in storage like it's all nothing,” Matt did the same, taking his glasses off to rub his own eyes.

“No more dumb Dad jokes, no more hugs, no more sickly sweet love between them… just some old pictures.”

“Yeah…”

“I miss them Matty…”

“I miss them too Pigeon.”

Matt wrapped an arm around his sister and held her close, flicking through to another picture wanting there to be a happy memory for them to laugh again but each one was met with tears. Small droplets landed on the laminated pages and Matt closed the album before pulling Pidge into the biggest hug he could manage, comforting his crying sister and her comforting him.

They ended up staying the night, both wanting to spend one last night in their childhood bedrooms before it got sold and became someone else's childhood bedroom, someone else's happy memories. Once they woke up they finished packing the house, trying to get everything done quickly so no more time was wasted in the empty shell they once called home.

Lance and Hunk came and helped move the furniture the siblings wanted to keep and some boxes into the vans before moving them off to the storage unit Pidge had organised earlier. The transport men came to take all the other pieces away to the skip to be disposed of, as Matt and Pidge worked together to get every remaining box into their cars. And now Finally they stood, staring into the empty shell of home. A home they had spent their whole lives in, a home their parents had made for them. A home that was now empty and no longer the one they had grown up with. 

A sudden realisation hit Pidge, and she quickly ran inside to collect the pea plant from the kitchen windowsill, before returning to Matt by the front door.

“All set?” Matt asked as he got ready to close the door.

“Yup. Goodbye house, I always liked you. We’ll be back to get Gunther before your new people come to make you their house,” Pidge sniffled, rubbing her nose with her hand as she began to get emotional again.

“Goodbye house. You lasted thirty years with the Holt family and you were the best house out of every house and you will always hold a special place in our hearts,” Matt rubbed his eyes as he spoke.

With a small silent nod between them, Matt closed the door and locked it. Once it was all locked up, he wrapped an arm around Pidge giving her a half hug before the two headed down the path to their cars, away from their home, never to enter it's walls again, never to slam the old chipped painted door again.


End file.
